American universities do poorly at international technology contest

As European and Asian countries continue to place better at this competition, there is concern that the United States is falling behind in all areas of technology. Other countries are doing a much better job of educating their children in math and science, while the US does worse and worse in international competition every year.

• American universities -- once the dominant force in the information technology world -- fell far down the ranks in a widely watched international computer programming contest held this week.
• The University of Illinois tied for 17th place in the world finals of the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest.
• That's the weakest result for the United States in the 29-year history of the competition.
• This year, the contest was held in Shanghai, where a home team, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, won.
• In one problem, contestants were asked to calculate the minimum number of cellular base stations needed for a mobile phone to be moved from one city to another with no loss of reception.
• Another problem challenged contestants to determine how much sunlight a Shanghai apartment management company could promise tenants on April 6, 2005.
• The students were provided information when the sun rises and sets on that date, as well as a drawing of the buildings and apartments.
• Asian and Eastern European schools have been scoring increasingly well in the world championship.
• "After World War II, the U.S. was ahead, as all other countries were recovering from the war," said UC Berkeley computer scientist David Patterson, the association's president.
• Patterson noted that, in many high-scoring countries, governments are in the vanguard of technology research.
• In the 1970s and 1980s, he said, the Defense Department's research arm, DARPA, invested in academic research and supported work in industrial centers such as Xerox PARC and Bell Labs.
• That public/private cooperation helped develop the personal computer and the Internet.
• While the United States slips, China's technology skills are rising, South Korea is the leader in broadband data transmission, and India is becoming the world's programming hub.
• We have too few students entering degree programs in math and science, " said Tracy Koon, director of corporate affairs.